by Our Sports Desk

Ben Gibson is targeting promotion to the Premier League as the first step in the process of restoring Middlesbrough to the big time.

The 22-year-old defender and his teammates will return to the top of the Championship table — for a few hours at least — with just two games left if they can see off fellow top-flight hopefuls, and in-form, Norwich at Carrow Road this evening.

That would give them a genuine chance of securing a return to the top flight after five seasons and, for that reason, Gibson believes the trip to Norfolk is as big as either the club’s League Cup success of 2004 or their feat in reaching the final of the Uefa Cup — now the Europa League — two years later.

He said: “I was only a young lad, I was just a fan, really, and part of the academy at that time, so I can’t really comprehend what that would be like in and around day-to-day.

“But as a fan, it’s as important because of the difference now, we all know, financially between the Championship and the Premier League, and just the difference in the effect it has on the town is massive, so I would think this is as big a finish to the season as any of them.”

Gibson, the nephew of Boro chairman Steve, was a schoolboy when the Teessiders lifted their first ever major trophy at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium a little more than 11 years ago and later made it all the way to a European showdown with Sevilla in Eindhoven.

He said: “They were just amazing days. The Uefa Cup, the run-in was spectacular really, the quarter-final, the semi-final, the comebacks at home. Eindhoven was a fantastic day — until kick-off.

“It was an amazing experience for a fan of a small-town club. ‘A small club in Europe,’ the fans used to sing — that’s what we were — and obviously we are looking to bring those days back.

“Obviously, that’s a long way off at the minute, but one step at a time.”

Middlesbrough’s last two fixtures are away to Fulham and at home to Brighton.